Is the 49er Championship Window Closing?

Originally posted by NinerBuff:
It depends on how much we will lose when Justin Smith finally starts to decline. He's the only guy I can see that will start showing his age. And I think it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to sign Bowman once his rookie contract expires. The money would be better spent on Aldon Smith, IMO. I think Bowman is a very good ILB, but he benefited greatly from playing in our system and our excellent front 7.

I'm betting the FO has Larry Grant in the wings in case we can't sign Bowman so I'm not too worried about that. Replacing Smith is another story, and not going to be easy.

Exactly. Grant played incredibly well in place of Patrick Willis last year. The smart decision is to lock Grant up with a long-term deal this year/next year.

Originally posted by NinerBuff:
It depends on how much we will lose when Justin Smith finally starts to decline. He's the only guy I can see that will start showing his age. And I think it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to sign Bowman once his rookie contract expires. The money would be better spent on Aldon Smith, IMO. I think Bowman is a very good ILB, but he benefited greatly from playing in our system and our excellent front 7.

I'm betting the FO has Larry Grant in the wings in case we can't sign Bowman so I'm not too worried about that. Replacing Smith is another story, and not going to be easy.

Exactly. Grant played incredibly well in place of Patrick Willis last year. The smart decision is to lock Grant up with a long-term deal this year/next year.

Not so sure. Bowman is locked up till 2014.. and even then, we would have options to retain him. Grant is only here on a 1 year deal... is creeping up to 30 by the time we'd be potentially done with Bowman... and Grant badly wants to be a starter. I think he'll be gone after the 2012 season... which is too bad for us, as I do really like him.

Originally posted by SocalAgent0:
How can something be closing before it fully opened?

Reasons why its not Closing

1) Alex Smith 1st year Healthy and coming back with same OC INCORRECT
2) Vernon Davis is in Prime along with Patrick Willis, up and coming Aldon Smith, Bowman, Best D in NFL CORRECT, OR VERY CLOSE TO CORRECT
3) Most Weapons team has had in years, with Speedsters Moss, Ginn, LaMichael James, A.J. Jenkins, with Crabtree finally healthy going into off season CORRECT
4) 3 back up QB's that all have potential to be quality "if" Smith gets hurt CANT AGREE WITH THIS, WE DONT KNOW YET
5) Playoff experience, which everyone on the team really didn't have before last year CORRECT
6) No giant Ego's on the team, no one believes they are better thant he whole of the team unlike in years past with VD and Crabs both now buying in HAVING AN EGO AND BUYING INTO THE TEAM CONCEPT ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
7) Overall team is young and able to continue to grow ASIDE FROM GORE AND JSMITH, CORRECT (UNFORTUNATELY, THEY ARE 2 OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT PLAYERS)
8) Front office set up like some of the top teams in the NFL to continue to repeat success REMAINS TO BE SEEN

1) Alex Smith 1st year Healthy and coming back with same OC INCORRECT
2) Vernon Davis is in Prime along with Patrick Willis, up and coming Aldon Smith, Bowman, Best D in NFL CORRECT, OR VERY CLOSE TO CORRECT
3) Most Weapons team has had in years, with Speedsters Moss, Ginn, LaMichael James, A.J. Jenkins, with Crabtree finally healthy going into off season CORRECT
4) 3 back up QB's that all have potential to be quality "if" Smith gets hurt CANT AGREE WITH THIS, WE DONT KNOW YET
5) Playoff experience, which everyone on the team really didn't have before last year CORRECT
6) No giant Ego's on the team, no one believes they are better thant he whole of the team unlike in years past with VD and Crabs both now buying in HAVING AN EGO AND BUYING INTO THE TEAM CONCEPT ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
7) Overall team is young and able to continue to grow ASIDE FROM GORE AND JSMITH, CORRECT (UNFORTUNATELY, THEY ARE 2 OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT PLAYERS)
8) Front office set up like some of the top teams in the NFL to continue to repeat success REMAINS TO BE SEEN

Originally posted by oldman9er:
Not so sure. Bowman is locked up till 2014.. and even then, we would have options to retain him. Grant is only here on a 1 year deal... is creeping up to 30 by the time we'd be potentially done with Bowman... and Grant badly wants to be a starter. I think he'll be gone after the 2012 season... which is too bad for us, as I do really like him.

Thanks oldman, I forgot about the specifics for Bowman and didn't realize that Grant will be pushing 30.

Originally posted by Pfield9er:
uhhh what?..window just opened, we have at least a 5 year run ahead of us and by the way we draft and add free agents plus re sign core guys we could have a 10 year run

Actually, the window has been relatively open for awhile now. I'd say it's been open since Patrick Willis came aboard. If we had a coach of Jim Harbaugh's caliber instead of Mike Singletary, we'd have been a playoff team the past few years. Would we have been championship-quality? I wouldn't say *that*, but with the weak NFC West, we could've been in the playoffs a few times now.

The window is closing for Frank Gore and Justin Smith though. I'd say Gore only has a year or two of being a 200+ carry back, while Justin Smith may not be the force he is after a few seasons.

We win 4 of next 6 Super Bowls...how's that for "window closing"? It is impossible to quantify just how much Coach Harbaugh and Trent Baalke bring to this team. Find me a great team and I'll show you a best in the league HC and GM. We haven't been in this situation for 14 yrs, and now we are finally set with not just a great F.O., but COY as a rook, no less, and GM of the yr. Put those guys together, look at the way they manage the payroll vs talent, and I think our window is going to be open BIG for many yrs to come. There are a lot of SBs out there, just waiting for us to take them. We got the horses on O finally, to match the #1 D and #1 STs. We also got the HC to make it happen and the GM to keep us winning with new talent blended with established talent. That really doesn't look like a window closing...it looks like the opposite. I forgot to mention Jed, who also will keep the ownership out of coaches and GMs way. Those all bode well for us guys.

Originally posted by SocalAgent0:
How can something be closing before it fully opened?

Reasons why its not Closing

1) Alex Smith 1st year Healthy and coming back with same OC INCORRECT
2) Vernon Davis is in Prime along with Patrick Willis, up and coming Aldon Smith, Bowman, Best D in NFL CORRECT, OR VERY CLOSE TO CORRECT
3) Most Weapons team has had in years, with Speedsters Moss, Ginn, LaMichael James, A.J. Jenkins, with Crabtree finally healthy going into off season CORRECT
4) 3 back up QB's that all have potential to be quality "if" Smith gets hurt CANT AGREE WITH THIS, WE DONT KNOW YET
5) Playoff experience, which everyone on the team really didn't have before last year CORRECT
6) No giant Ego's on the team, no one believes they are better thant he whole of the team unlike in years past with VD and Crabs both now buying in HAVING AN EGO AND BUYING INTO THE TEAM CONCEPT ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
7) Overall team is young and able to continue to grow ASIDE FROM GORE AND JSMITH, CORRECT (UNFORTUNATELY, THEY ARE 2 OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT PLAYERS)
8) Front office set up like some of the top teams in the NFL to continue to repeat success REMAINS TO BE SEEN

Originally posted by SocalAgent0:
How can something be closing before it fully opened?

Reasons why its not Closing

1) Alex Smith 1st year Healthy and coming back with same OC INCORRECT
2) Vernon Davis is in Prime along with Patrick Willis, up and coming Aldon Smith, Bowman, Best D in NFL CORRECT, OR VERY CLOSE TO CORRECT
3) Most Weapons team has had in years, with Speedsters Moss, Ginn, LaMichael James, A.J. Jenkins, with Crabtree finally healthy going into off season CORRECT
4) 3 back up QB's that all have potential to be quality "if" Smith gets hurt CANT AGREE WITH THIS, WE DONT KNOW YET
5) Playoff experience, which everyone on the team really didn't have before last year CORRECT
6) No giant Ego's on the team, no one believes they are better thant he whole of the team unlike in years past with VD and Crabs both now buying in HAVING AN EGO AND BUYING INTO THE TEAM CONCEPT ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
7) Overall team is young and able to continue to grow ASIDE FROM GORE AND JSMITH, CORRECT (UNFORTUNATELY, THEY ARE 2 OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT PLAYERS)
8) Front office set up like some of the top teams in the NFL to continue to repeat success REMAINS TO BE SEEN

My thoughts in bold.

See smith thread.

?

Nevermind. Figured out that you meant you responded in the Smith thread. Thank you for swearing at me and still being wrong.

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